TiVo: Fixing Multi-room Viewing Error: Reason: 0xffff

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From the computer of: qmchenry (339 recipes)
Created: Dec 26, 2006

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TiVo has changed the way many of us watch TV (oh how I hate to stay in a hotel room now!). If you have two or more TiVos (Series 2 at least) connected to your home network, you can watch programs recorded on one TiVo from the other TiVo. Unless you get an error with the helpful message Reason: 0xffff Here are some tips to solve this problem.

While replacing an old Series 1 TiVo with a new Series 2, one of the first things I wanted to try was the multi-room viewing. In the guide, I received an error when I clicked on the name of the other TiVo. Growing up with computers in the 80s, I'm not unfamiliar with cryptic error codes, but nowadays programmers should be flogged!

A quick Google led to one possible solution at this forum thread that involves a voodoo-like fix: login to your tivo.com account, change the preferences on your TiVos (I have TiVo -> Manage My Account -> login -> DVR Preferences) by unchecking the box under Allow transfers and clicking Save Preferences. Once this is done, ask your TiVo to connect to the TiVo service (make a daily call) to download this new setting, then reset the Allow Transfers setting at tivo.com, save the preferences again, and repeat the daily call. To force a daily call, go to Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Phone & Network -> Connect to the TiVo service now.

Resigned to doing this (I was going to do it for both TiVos at the same time just to be sure), I started the process. However, when I got to the Network Connection screen to select the "Connect to the TiVo service now" option, I noticed in the "Last status" field a message that it was waiting for a restart because of a service update. Rather than go through the steps above, I forced the TiVo to restart (Messages & Settings -> Restart or Reset system). When it restarted, multi-room viewing worked. If you TiVo does not have a status message about a pending restart, this trick will probably not help with your multi-room viewing 0xffff error, but if it does, the restart solution is an easier one.